Ex-Ford Heights mayor accused of stealing nearly $150K from village is out of jail but under electronic monitoring

Phillip Turner, the attorney for former Ford Heights Mayor Charles Griffin, said Tuesday that the felony theft and official misconduct charges his client faces are politically motivated and that he would be vindicated. (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown)

Phillip Turner, the attorney for former Ford Heights Mayor Charles Griffin, said Tuesday that the felony theft and official misconduct charges his client faces are politically motivated and that he would be vindicated. (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown)

The former mayor of Ford Heights, accused of stealing nearly $150,000 of village funds, was placed on electronic home monitoring Thursday by Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr.

Charles R. Griffin, 63, who spent the night in jail after turning himself in to authorities Wednesday, denied the charges through his attorney during the court appearance in Chicago. He did not have to post bail.

“Theft by a person in a position of public trust is unacceptable and will not be tolerated, “ Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement that vowed her continued efforts to root out government corruption.

Griffin’s alleged embezzlement was discovered shortly after he left office in May 2017 — after losing his re-election bid to current mayor Annie Coulter — when village officials discovered “irregular activity” in three village accounts at BMO Harris Bank, officials said.

The accounts had been opened in the village’s name between 2010 and 2014 with Griffin as the signatory, prosecutors said, but village trustees and officials had not previously known of their existence. Griffin’s personal address, rather than the village’s address, was listed on file for two of the accounts, prosecutors said.

A review of one of the accounts found it had received transfers of about $134,679 from the other two undisclosed accounts and checks from the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, which represented the village’s share of video gaming taxes, according to prosecutors.

Griffin is also accused of cashing more than $13,000 of checks payable to the village at a currency exchange in Chicago Heights and using the proceeds for personal use, prosecutors said.

At Thursday’s bond hearing, Griffin’s attorney, Phillip A. Turner, told the judge that his client disputed the facts of the case and was looking forward to fighting the charges.

“The one thing that’s absolutely clear is that Charles Griffin didn’t steal any money from the village of Ford Heights, and he never would,” Turner said. “In fact, if allowed to, it’d show that he spent a lot of his own money, sometimes, and a lot of his time where he didn’t have to in trying to help people in Ford Heights. . . . Unlike so many other people, he didn’t flee from Ford Heights, he stayed there, he’s always been there, raised his family there and he’s always been committed to that community.”

Turner said he believed the charges had been trumped up by the village’s current mayor, who defeated Griffin in what he called an “acrimonious” election that was marked by accusations of misuse of funds on both sides.

He said prosecutors has “mischaracterized” the bank records and that many of the fund transfers they discovered could have been repayments of personal money Griffin had expended on behalf of the village.

“All of this will come out, slowly but surely,” he said, adding that he was “very confident” his client would prevail.

Coulter declined comment on Griffin’s arrest and on his attorney’s accusations that the charges were politically motivated.

Griffin is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 13 for a preliminary hearing.